Lets Talk
by Shidoin
Summary: One shot of Ranma and Akane when they finally get a chance to be alone without everyone telling them how to live their lives. No, there's no lemony stuff in it. Sorry the summary bytes. You'll get over it.


**It's not mine! I don't own it! And I'm ticked that the manga ended with them NOT married!**

Akane Tendo walked down the street in the market area of town, having offered to do the shopping so that her sister, Kasumi, could start on dinner. She knew it was going to be a pretty big feast by the shopping list Kasumi had given her, but she didn't mind doing all the shopping. It had seemed that since the return from China and the failed wedding attempt that having a chance to be alone and just think was usually a distant memory.

It wasn't so much that she minded living in a full household, which consisted of her and her two sisters, Kasumi and Nabiki, her father Soun, Genma and Nodoka Saotome, and of course their son...Ranma. No she didn't mind the full house hold. She actually kind of liked seeming to be part of a big family. It was the constant push of everyone around her to marry Ranma and carry on the family schools of anything goes martial arts. No mind, it wasn't at all that she was completely against the idea of marrying Ranma. To the contrary being married, and to Ranma particularly, was something that she'd actually done a lot of thinking about for the past few months. No the issue was not with her wanting to be with him. As far as she was concerned it had everything to do with how he felt about her.

From day one neither teen had been happy about the engagement, and it hadn't helped that the misunderstanding of Ranma showing up in his cursed form had caused an awkward situation with a naked Akane walking in on a very male Ranma in the bath.

Akane blushed a little at the memory.

Since that day the two had slowly been able to form what you might would call a relationship, but both were careful to never let their own guard down even though it was obvious to anyone around them that they did at least care for eachother to some degree.

Seeing that she had the last of her sisters list checked off Akane decided that she ought to head home. As she was walking she passed a puddle on the road. Puddles. If Ranma were with her a car would have driven by soaking him and causing his female self to surface. It didn't matter what the situation would be without Ranma around. When he was, the water found its way to him. She started down at her own reflection and remembered that time when Ranma had caught her off guard by telling her she looked cute when she smiled. She remembered smiling in her room for a long time before he had caught her from her window and made some lame joke about it causing her to send him flying into the pond in the yard. Akane suddenly realizing that she was giggling at her reflection while thinking about Ranma flying choked back her chuckle and looked back up in the direction of home.

She had to make sure that if anything was said tonight pertaning to her and Ranma (which happened most nights at dinner) that her head was clear enough for her to be able to fight her battles. She was lucky that the one person who never seemed to push her on the subject was Kasumi. She was sure that Kasumi knew she was full of it when she'd tell the others that she could care less what Ranma did or even more WHO he did it with, but she hadn't said anything herself in some time, which Akane took as her sister's silent promise to let her figure things out on her own and not push. She often wondered if that's the way their mother would have been had she still been alive today.

"Heya, Akane! What's been keepin' ya?" she looked up and over to see Ranma standing on the fence.

"Oh, Hi Ranma." she said as he jumped down next to her. "Are the others wondering where I am with the groceries? I guess I just got a little distracted on the way home. You know...just thinking about stuff."

"Yeah, tell me about it. I don't think I even need to tell you that I was sent to make sure you're okay..."

Akane rolled her eyes dramatically before both let out a little chuckle.

"Well, you don't APPEAR to be in any danger...but since I'm here do you want me to carry some of that stuff? It looks pretty heavy." He reached a hand out, but didn't take anything from her. Just out right saying Akane couldn't handle something and taking over had always been a huge blow to her and therefore something he'd been trying to work on.

The offer was seen (thankfully for Ranma) as the genuin help it was meant to be and she passed him half of what she had in her arms with a small smile.

"Thanks Ranma...I guess it is a little heavy. I know I really should have asked someone to come with me when Kasumi gave me the list...I just didn't think about it I guess."

With that they walked the rest of the way home mostly in silence with random bits of conversation popping up every now and again until the finally arrived outside the front gate to the Tendo residence.

Akane started to head in the gate when Ranma grabbed her arm pulling her around to face him.

"Um...Akane?"

"What is it Ranma?" she asked.

"Well...the thing is....well, you and I have gone through a lot, and I was hoping that sometime you and I could...well talk about everything...you know...without the family around to ruin it." He said blushing a little.

Akane sighed, "I know exactly what you mean....I mean...I know our fathers don't mean any harm by it. They just want whats best for the school, but everyone knows that you and I get along better just being in the same room when they are not around to try to force things..."

"So...you'd be okay with just spending some time with me at some point with no one else around? Time that we could spend to let eachother know exactly what it is we want without that interferance? Sometime soon?"

They were standing outside the door now. "Yes, I think the sooner the better to be honest....I'll admit that there are things I'd like to disuss with you that I'm scared enough about without them around...but if you can somehow manage to give us the opportunity then I'll see to it that I get past my own ego and take advantage of the situation."

He seemed to sigh in relief and he started opening the door. "I was hoping you'd say that..." and the two walked into the very quiet and seemingly empty house.

"Kasumi!" Akane yelled and then looked questioningly to Ranma. "Nabiki? ...Dad? Hmm...no one seems to be home..."

"I know..." Akane looked again at a slightly blushing Ranma. "I...well, I wanted to have a chance to talk to you so I got Kasumi to make you that list that would take a while and then....well um...don't hit me...but we told everyone that you were gonna could dinner tonight to get them out of the house." He winced slightly at Akane's brief eye twitch, but relaxed when she seemed to do so. "I know it probably wasn't the best way to go about things, but I really do think we should talk, and I expect everyone to be gone for some time since it'd take quite a while to prepare everything you got...am....am I in deep for this?"

So many things raced through Akane's mind. He did it again. He'd found a way to use her lack of cooking skills for his own purposes. Once again he managed to rub it in her face that she couldn't cook. He'd scared her family away by telling them she was going to make dinner when she hadn't even been considering it. Although she guessed it was kind of sweet in a way because he HAD done it so that the two of them could be alone. Even if it wasn't for a romantic reason as she deep down would have hoped. He did it so that they could figure things out with no outside persistance.

"No...no you're not in deep Ranma" She finally said with a sigh. "I'll be honest with you...I'm not at all happy that you used my cooking to scare everyone off...but I do have to admit that if we needed to sure fire way to make them gone...this would be it.

Ranma gave a half laugh of relief. "Well, how about we put these groceries away...Kasumi said she'd make it tomorrow after we'd had time to talk."

She nodded and they went into the kitchen.

More silence followed as the put everything in its respective cabinet as each of them considered what exactly they might say to eachother and what topics would be best to avoid. Ranma was the one who finally spoke first with the topic Akane had been sort of hoping wouldn't come up.

"I guess the first thing I'd like to get cleared up is the whole situation with me having so many fiances...." after seeing that Akane appeared calm he continued, "I just want to let you know straight out that regardless of what circumstances have come up where I looked bad in your eyes, that it was never my intention to be in those situations and by no means do I have, nor have I EVER had any intentions of marrying either Shampoo or Ukyo."

"What about Kodachi?"

"Oh common, Akane! You gotta know that Kodachi never even had a chance in that equation!" Ranma cut her off, "I mean, yeah Shampoo and U-chan can be a huge annoyance, but at least they're not completely off their rockers like what those Kunos are."

Even Akane had to admit that compared to the Kunos, the other two were more of a minor annoyance.

"So..." Akane started slowly, "do you just not see yourelf getting married? Or at least not in the near future?"

"Well, now I don't know about that. I guess that I've had all this stuff just thrown at me with no breaks that I haven't really had a lot of time to think about it. And...well, I never said that there was no way I'd every marry ANY of my fiances...not that that really matters because in my mind there is only one arrangement that is valid anyway...."

Akane stood silently for a moment processing her thoughts. "But..Ranma unless there's some one I don't know about the only other fiancy you have is-"

She turned around nearly bumping into him. He had been standing right behind her.

"You" he finished her sentence for her. "Akane...you and I...well, we've been through a lot and I think it's safe to say that we've come a long way and both of us have grown up a lot." She nodded "and our fathers can say whatever they want and I suppose that if they insist on throwing family honor into it that they could probably one day really force us to get married and join the schools together...but they have no affect on what we want deep in our own hearts. They can't force us to have that connection...neither of our fathers had anything to do with the fact that you grabbed that hot handle to save me, and no one told me I had to get you that water just so that you'd live another day to pound me to the ground."

Akane felt a lump building up in her throat. "All I wanted was for you to be okay...I didn't want to live if it meant having to miss you for the rest of my life...that's why I didn't think about the consequenses of what I was doing...I just knew that if I could stop the water from flowing that you'd be okay...you'd have to be. That's all that mattered..." She looked down at her feet to hide the tear that she knew was there.

"Like I said, Akane...the heart will never do something because it's told to or because anyone else thinks it should...this....connection that you and I seem to have....that's all us and I think that if we just stop listening to what others are telling us and start listening to our own hearts..." He put his fingers under he chin lifting her head back up to him. "Then maybe we won't have to be so terrified of what we are really feeling...that we won't have to feel like we have no say in it."

"And...what is your heart telling you to do, Ranma?" She didn't take her eyes from his.

"I can't really say for sure yet...I...I need to see something, but I just have to ask if it's okay...um...can I...? Oh boy...this is harder than I thought it'd be..."

Akane rose up a little on her feet to where her lips were nearly touching Ranma's as she spoke softly. "If you are asking what I think you are asking...go ahead and ask...you might just get a yes today..."

"Can...can I kiss you Akane? Please" He breathed and she could see in his eyes that her being so close was driving him insane.

She was barely able to breath out a "yes" before his lips were on hers. She was startled at first at his force, but it took less than a moment for her to start kissing back. The world around them seemed to dissappear until it was just them in the universe in a tight embrace neither one willing or wanting to break off the kiss for more than brief moments for air.

Akane finally pulled back just enough to speak. "Did...did that help you get what answers you needed?" and gave him another kiss.

He smiled and gave a small chuckle. "Yeah, Akane. I think it did." He pulled back and beamed a smile at her. "I don't care what anyone else says anymore. None of that matters...as far as I'm concered I only care about what you think...and as for me...I can't lie anymore...not after kissing you and letting myself deep inside feel this way. I...." he looked down for brief moment and then back up to her gaze with more confidence. "I love you, Akane...I've always loved you."

"I love you too Ranma. More than anything in this world I love you."

Neither of them heard recorder that was tapped to the bottom side of the counters edge.

**A/N: Well, that's it. I really only planned for this to be a one shot (as I have absolutely zero ideas on how to keep it going). Just supposed to be a sweet moment between Ranma and Akane where they admit their feelings for eachother. I hope that all RanAka fans out there will deem it an appropriate story for the pair. ^_^**


End file.
